CHENNAI: The state government is carrying out a greenhouse gas inventory for each sector and will be releasing the carbon emission data in the next few months. The data will be used to undertake several mitigation measures to achieve carbon neutrality or net zero even before India’s target of 2070.
Chief Minister MK Stalin said the Tamil Nadu Governing Council on Climate Change, which met for the first time under his chairmanship, will expedite and decide on measures to achieve carbon neutral tag.
Tamil Nadu is the first state in the country to constitute a governing council on climate change with eminent members like economist Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former executive director of United Nations Environment Programme Erik Solheim, chairperson of MS Swaminathan Research Foundation Soumya Swaminathan and chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited Nandan Nilekani.
Supriya Sahu, additional chief secretary to the government in Environment, Forests and Climate Change department told TNIE after the council meeting that the work on quantifying sector-wise carbon emissions is being done by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), and 70% of the work is done.
“Preliminary details were presented during the meeting. As expected, 80% of the emissions are from energy sector, but the important thing is despite Tamil Nadu being the second largest contributor in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), we stand ninth when it comes to emissions. So, once the data is available, we will be on our path to achieving net zero.”
Meanwhile, Stalin said henceforth, all the government projects will be implemented after examining them with a climate lens.“Government is not against growth, but it should be resource efficient and sustainable,” he said addressing the council, which includes key departmental ministers.
When pointed out that nine out of 50 states/provinces across the world that are predicted to face the highest climate risk are located in India and that Tamil Nadu stood 36 in the list (‘Gross Domestic Climate Risks 2023’ by Cross Dependency Institute), Stalin said the study underlined the importance of the council’s meeting.
G Sundarrajan, coordinator of Poovulagin Nanbargal and member of the governing council, said the words of chief minister ushers confidence and hoped the issue of climate change takes centre stage.
Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu, Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji, Transport Minister SS Sivasankar, Minister for Finance Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, Minister for Environment and Climate Change Siva V Meyyanathan and Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu were present.